Through The Looking Glass Drabbles
by symphonyofsilence
Summary: Drabble pieces from my Through The Looking Glass story. Mostly comedy. Pretty much all pieces here will be T.
1. Elric Brothers vs The Remote Control

This is a drabble piece from my Through The Looking Glass Universe, I guess you could read it alone but it would probably make a lot more sense if you read the first few chappies of Through The Looking Glass first.

I will probably add more drabbles to this, I really like the idea of Ed and Al in the modern world.

Now without further ado...

* * *

**Elric Brothers Vs. The Remote Control**

Ed and Al sat on the small couch in the back of the shoten waiting for Uryuu to show up for Al's patrol. Ed was shown the TV by Renji one morning and had quite honestly fallen in love with the thing. Who would have thought that some bulky black box could open the entire world to your fingertips? He had spent almost an entire day flipping through channels, watching news and laughing at comedy shows before finally finding something that had taken both Al's and his breath away with its sheer awesomeness.

_I'm not letting you win this time Natruto! _The cartoon figure yelled out on the screen.

"Man this whole television thing is really cool." Ed murmured. He had never even heard of ninjas before and was pretty sure it was overdone to ridiculousness, but just something about the way these guys lived and laughed and fought spoke to him in some deep way.

"I know what you mean! Just look at all the stuff we can just sit here and watch." Al replied, eyes glued to the scene in front of them.

_Sasukeeeee!_ The TV character yelled and the two boys watched in rapt attention at the fight scene taking place before them.

"Yeah, it's definitely good. So who do you think will win this fight?" Ed asked. Al's brow creased for a moment in thought.

"Sasuke." He replied with a nod.

"Sasuke? No way, Naruto is totally gonna kick his ass!" Ed retorted and thumped his hand on the couch cushion for emphasis. Unfortunately that movement also jostled the remote control.

_Get back here or I'll-_

–_CHCK- _

_The black widow spider is one of the most deadliest of mates…._

"What did you do? " Al cried, turning a shocked face to his brother.

"I don't know, I think I smacked the remote." He replied, now picking up the small item and looked intently at all the buttons. What channel were they watching again?

"Well change it back!" Al said and looked at the tv with uncertain eyes at the two spiders.

_You can see the male spider climb on to its web in preparation for the mating ritual…_

"I'm trying, the buttons won't work!" Ed said, trying not to become visibly flustered. By this time he was pressing both the channel up and down buttons but all to no avail.

"I don't want to watch spiders having sex, now fix whatever you did." Al said sharply, his eyes were growing larger the closer the spiders got to each other.

Ed took a steadying breath and tried to ignore the television. All he had to do was figure out how to get the remote control to start working again and then everything would be fine. He looked over all the buttons on the small contraption.

"Ok, ok, I can do this. Maybe if I hit this button…" He murmured. He placed his finger over the small button and pressed. Then pressed it again, and again and again.

"Nothing's happening, and they're getting closer!" Al was starting to sound a little strangled. Ed gave him an apologetic look and went back to punching buttons. TV button – nothing. AUX – nothing. Volume up – Nothing! He didn't understand how this infernal thing could just _stop_ working!

"Nothings working! I cant-"

_The male has been accepted and the mating begins. The female is still while the male starts his erotic dance…_

"Erotic WHAT?" Al cried and pushed himself backwards on the couch so that his small body was flush against the cushions.

"Maybe this button will work." Ed's voice was becoming strangled as well. He pressed a red one. Nothing. Then a blue one, and still nothing.

"Mash them all!" Al's voice squeaked and the two smashed the buttons together in unison.

_Unfortunately this male has displeased the female, and she bites him-_

The two brothers stopped to gape wide-eyed at the television in front of them.

"EEW!" They shouted in unison.

"What are you two doing?" Renji asked as he came around the corner, a small bowl of rice in his hands.

"NOTHING!" Al shouted, his face going a bright shade of pink while trying – and failing – to look anywhere but at the television and the horrific scene in front of them.

"Help the buttons aren't working!" Ed said while pushing frantically at all the buttons his fingers could get to.

"Oh yeah, that remote's crap, sometimes it shorts out. There's a button on the tv you can press to turn the channels, it's right here." Renji said, pointing out the small knobs along the side of the black box.

"Well change it! I don't want to watch this!" Ed yelped. He was growing nauseous from the mating rituals of arachnids. Thank goodness people didn't act like them. That was definitely a disturbing thought and had him shuddering in revulsion. Renji looked to the TV, blanched and looked away, then pressed the button. All of a sudden the cartoon was back on, the fight still going strong. Ed and Al both breathed a sigh of relief.

"There, better?" Renji asked.

"Thank goodness, Thanks Renji." Al said and gave the man a bright smile.

"No worries. " Renji said with a shrug, then walked over to one of the floor cushions, sat down and ate his snack while watching cartoons with the two boys.

* * *

Urahara watched the three from the hall and gave a light chuckle, placing the working remote back in the folds of his robes.

"Oh yeah, they're definitely not from around here." He said with a smile and shook his head a little in amusement, then walked back to his workroom.

* * *

**Note:** I don't really watch Naruto but I did see one fight between Naruto and Sasuke and thought Ed and Al would probably love it. If I screwed up on the characterizations of Naruto and Sasuke please to be forgiving me, as I do not know them well *bows*

~Symphonyofsilence


	2. Man on The Correct Path

Ok, This little drabble piece is dedicated to Kitsunelover300 for giving me this idea. It's placed around Ch. 9 in TTLG. I hope you all like it.

* * *

Ed had a feeling he looked like an idiot.

It hadn't been proven as fact at this current point in time, but the suspicion was there nonetheless. It didn't take a genius to figure out that he looked different than these people, what with his gold hair and eyes, but there wasn't all that much difference in the way he was dressed or the way he acted, so he was able to deduce that it wasn't wardrobe related the feeling had stemmed from. However, the odd looks still came. It usually happened after he would say something to Ichigo while they were on patrol, which was what they were doing now. Every time he said something to Ichigo when they were around people they would look at him strangely, some people even shook their heads at him, and more than once someone had actually crossed the street to avoid him.

The first few times he had simply ignored them, thinking it was just him being paranoid, or perhaps had a random bout of pointless anxiety, but as time wore on the looks kept coming, and Ichigo it seemed, was getting a kick out of it.

"Why the hell are you smiling?" Ed asked as yet another person looked at him like he had two heads.

Ichigo's smile disappeared, but his eyes were still filled with amusement. "No reason."

"Why do I have the feeling you're lying?" Ed asked sourly. A woman pushing a carriage stared strangely at him, and gave him a wide berth as she walked past.

"That's the third time that's happened today!" Ed turned and pointed at the woman, who was walking as fast as she could around the closest corner. He was the first to admit that his people skills were less than spectacular at times, but he couldn't think of a single thing he had done to warrant this kind of behavior from perfect strangers. Ed stopped walking and grabbed Ichigo's arm, staring him down.

The redhead covered his mouth to stifle a smirk. "You know, for all your smarts your kinda dumb sometimes."

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly what I said." Ichigo retorted, letting the smirk turn into grin.

"I'm not dumb."

"But you can be forgetful."

Ed was about to make a smart reply when yet another person, this time a smartly dressed business man ahead of them crossed the street to avoid him. He looked him and Ichigo over. He took in the huge sword, black robes and scowling face – less scowling at this particular moment.

"It's because I'm hanging out with a guy that looks like he's about to kill things, isn't it?"

Ichigo actually started to laugh out loud. He hated it when he missed something, and from the raucous laughter bubbling out of the redhead, he most assuredly had missed something terribly important. All Ed could do was scowl at him for all he was worth, chin jutting out angrily at his stung pride until the laughter faded.

"This is too funny." Ichigo had finally gotten himself under control, although quick fizzles of laughter were still making its way out of him as he wiped a stray tear from his eye.

"It is not!"

"Yeah it is."

"Alright. What the hell am I missing?"

"This." Ichigo walked up a few paces towards another person and waved his hands in front of the man. He didn't move to step around the redhead, didn't make eye contact, didn't even act like he noticed Ichigo at all, although Ed got a scathing look that said the man thought the blond might be clinically insane.

All too belatedly Ed remembered Urahara's words when he first showed up, something about seeing Ichigo in spirit form and how it wasn't normal, or maybe unusual, or something else equally cryptic. At home there was no instance he could ever remember hanging out with someone who was actually invisible, and an embarrassed flush stained his cheeks. He had been chatting with Ichigo no matter where they were, and the people who couldn't see the shinigami must have thought Ed really was insane.

"So you've known this whole time and haven't told me?" Ed shouted.

"I told you when you first got here remember?"

"No I don't remember! I was unconscious!"

"More like not paying attention."

"Why you little-"

"I'm not the one who should be called _little_."

Ed was starting to see everything through a painful haze of red, and Ichogo was the bullseye. Completely ignoring every bizarre look he got, he stomped up to the redhead. He could almost feel Ichigo's neck under his hands.

That plan however, was totally destroyed when a huge monster attacked him from behind. Under normal circumstances he would have used his alchemy to get away, but the creature attacking him was so heavy that all the breath was knocked out of him and instead of clapping he ended up using his hands to try and push the offending attack off, all to no avail.

"Get… off." He wheezed.

"Oh I'm so sorry! Katsumi you should know better!" A man with a kind voice called out, but the extremely large, extremely heavy dog above him panted happily away, lying down completely on top of Ed. Beyond the dizzying world of twilight sky, chunks of buildings and huge scruffy dog that filled Ed's horizon, every single little hair on his body suddenly stood on end.

He recognized that voice, although it had changed greatly from the first time he had heard it, making kind apologies about the state of his house, to the last time, whispering eerily in a half human voice, talking about how he would be able to bring back his daughter if only he could use the philosophers stone just once more.

"Silly doggy!" A little girl laughed, and over his view of towering, panting dog a small girl, no older than six or seven came into view. She didn't look anywhere close to what he had expected, the dark hair was done up in pigtails that bounced with every move she made, but the voice she had, the way her eyes seemed. It was too surreal.

He barely noticed the rushed apologies as the dog was finally tugged off of him. His mind was a whirl of confusion. How the hell could they be here, how could they have the voices they had? When the man stretched out a hand to help him up Ed almost recoiled from it, still stuck on the Tucker in his head and mashing the man in front of him up with the chimera in Ed's mind.

"Are you alright?" The man asked. He looked concerned and a little worried. Ed eventually pushed off the ground, dusting black dog hair from his clothing.

"Yeah, I think so." Now that he was upright he could get a better look at his attacker. The dog was a lab of some sort, with a lolling tongue and a wagging tail. He glared at the dog then looked at the other two and something stuck in his throat. The man was tall, with dark hair and light eyes, but there were no glasses resting on his nose as he had expected to see. He wore a suit that although wasn't flashy or fancy, was still well cut and well made. The young girl knelt by his side, patting the dog, as if calming the thing as it panted softly beside her. The scene was so eerie he had to look away, locking eyes with a curious and confused looking Ichigo.

For one fleeting moment he had the strangest feeling that he was actually looking at the fallen alchemist and chimera daughter that he had known, even though he had never met these two people standing in front of him before.

"You don't look alright." The man said as he looked Ed over critically. Ed bit back the comment he wanted to make, snapping at the man for putting him not only off balance, but making his stomach turn in queasy knots. But he had never met this man he reminded himself, so he forced a smile he didn't really feel.

"I'm fine, I really am, you just… Remind me of someone I knew back home."

The man nodded, giving him one more dubious sidelong glance. He pulled a card from his breast pocket and handed it over between his two fingers. "Well if you find out that you're more hurt than you actually are, come and see me. My clinic is only a few blocks away. It would be free of charge of course."

Ed took the card and nodded. "I don't think I'll need it. But thanks."

"Alright then. Once again I apologize for Katsumi here. Time to go Takara." The man took the little girls hand and led them away, tugging on the leash at the same time. The dog gave a muffled 'woof' and stood up, amiably following its master.

"Bye! Hope you feel better!" The girl smiled and waved from over her shoulder, and the three walked off towards the park down the street.

Ed didn't waste time. Once the three were a comfortable distance away he ran like a bullet shot from a gun towards the nearest ally where he could happily fall apart in peace. Of all the things he had expected to see in this life and this world, this was not one of them. Questions plagued his mind, and half formed theories ran a muck inside his head. Could it be that Tucker and Nina had doubles here in this world? And if that were true, how many others were in Karakura that were mirror images of the people he knew back home? He leaned heavily on the brick wall, catching his breath and pushing down the bile that rose in the back of his throat.

"What the hell is with you?" Ichigo asked as he walked into the shadowed ally, following close behind. The card was forgotten in his crushed palm, but Ichigo pried it from his metal fingers and took a look.

"Miyaki Michio. Private Doctor." Ichigo shook his head, scoffing softly at the small business card. "Everyone wants to sound fancy and expensive. I bet his clinic looks just like ours."

"It's one place I'm never gonna go." The vehemence in his voice was surprising, so he clamped his mouth shut. His mind kept giving him flashes of the smartly dressed man in the street, mixing horribly with the last images he remembered of Tucker oozing out from some hidden underground stairwell and whispering that he needed Al once more. He could remember it so clearly, him carrying his living doll of a daughter and the revulsion he felt in seeing it. And Nina- Fuck. The last he had seen of her was a mess on a wall, mixed with the dog to create some talking chimera in some back ally just like this one. He opened his eyes, staring hard at the brick wall in front of him, willing the stone to etch itself into his head to rid himself of the memories, failing miserably.

"You act like you know him." Ichigo leaned against the brick wall beside him.

"I don't… Not really. I knew his voice though."

"Like you and Toshiro?"

"Yeah. Only… It was different. I never thought-" Ed shook his head and turned, taking up the same position Ichigo had, leaning against the wall and slumping his shoulders against it, feeling tired and worn. "I never thought I would see her again though."

"The little girl?"

"Yeah."

"What happened?"

Ed glanced over. Ichigo looked clam, simply curious at Ed's reaction to the family. He debated on how much to tell, and weighed the words carefully before he spoke. "He was an alchemist, a good one, probably one of the few elite ones that knew his shit inside and out." A sad smile touched his lips before it quivered and faded. "But he got too caught up the science and forgot about the importance of family."

"How can anyone forget about their family?"

His lip quirked upwards. For him and Ichigo, family was the most important thing. They would do anything to protect the ones they loved, it was one of the qualities he could see in the redhead, and for all the annoying jabs at his height and all the wise cracks Ichigo flung his way, they were completely united in that regard. He knew Ichigo would protect his little sisters with all the strength and power he had, and it was the same for him when it came to Al.

"He didn't forget about them." Ed's voice was grim, and the frown he wore was hard and unforgiving. "He used them. A means to an end that he regretted for the rest of his life. He spent the remainder of it chasing some dream that he could fix it again."

"Sounds depressing."

"You've no idea."

Ichigo looked at the slightly crumpled business card once more, and Ed followed his gaze. The card was pristinely white, and the finely embossed letters stood out on it.

"I wonder what his name means." Ed wondered aloud.

"Michio? I think it means 'a man on the correct path'." Ichigo said, reading over the Kanji of the man's name.

"Man on the correct path?" Ed took the card from Ichigo. It had the clinic address and phone number on it. He slipped the cardstock into his pants pocket. "I really hope so." He added quietly.

* * *

He waited until his patrols were done with Ichigo and Al was asleep. He would tell his brother about the meeting, but he needed to be sure of something before that happened.

He climbed out the bedroom window, not wanting to alert anyone in the Shoten about what he was doing, and most definitely wanting to skip any annoying Urahara questions about it. It was something he had to do on his own.

He simply had to know.

It took some time to find the address. It was slow going since he was still so unfamiliar to Karakura. The street lights were shining yellow over the darkness of the streets at this time of night, and very few, if anyone was out at this hour.

When he finally found it his heart did a frightening little lurch, and thudded uncomfortably away in his chest. Instead of the huge looming monstrosity Tucker's original home had been, the one in front of him seemed small, quaint even. It was no more than two stories high, and looked like many other buildings in the area. A store or some other type of commercial property was on the bottom, with living quarters above.

All the lights on the first floor were out, the drapes pulled closed and the doors locked. The second floor lights were on, and with a little searching Ed found a drainpipe in close proximity. He clambered up it as quietly as possible and took a peek inside.

It was the side view of a small living room, and Ed could see blue flashes washing against the faces of people inside from the TV they were sitting in front of. The dog lay on the floor between the couch and the coffee table, and the little girl was curled up like a cat, asleep on a chair.

The man was sitting stretched out and half asleep on the couch, lazily flipping through channels. Beside him was what Ed could only assume was his wife, reading over some magazine and idly turning the pages, looking but not really reading. Ed had never met Tucker's original wife. He had used her in his twisted alchemy a year before Ed had come to Central. At the time, Ed was in the process of recovering from his automail surgery, working hard to be able to move the heavy metal limbs and training to get his strength back so he could try and achieve a Military Alchemist status. The woman beside him seemed neat and small and he had to admit, they looked good together.

He was expecting something evil to happen, maybe the man suddenly turning into the chimera that he had associated Tucker with ever since he had seen the man in Warehouse 5, or maybe the little girl suddenly fusing with the dog half asleep on the floor, but there was no feeling of wrongness here. The entire scene was so domestic and normal that he hung on for a good few more minutes to the drain pipe just watching in stunned fascination, an odd mixture of apprehension and guarded hope warring for dominance in the pit of his stomach.

Eventually the woman closed the magazine and looked over to the little girl, nudged the man in the ribs and pointed with her chin towards her, saying something Ed wasn't able to catch since all the windows were closed to block out the chill of the late autumn night. The man looked over towards the girl, gave a small smile and stood up. He scooped her into his arms and carried her around the corner, where Ed's best guess was where the bedrooms lay.

"A man on the correct path." Ed murmured to himself as he climbed back down the drainpipe.

He could only hope.

* * *

Katsumi – Japanese name meaning self controlled

Michio – Japanese name meaning man on the correct path

Takara – Japanese girl name meaning treasure


End file.
